LANSING, MI -- Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder has created a multi-agency response effort to address the growing problem of toxic fluorocarbon pollution that has contaminated drinking water supplies in communities around the state.

The new Michigan PFAS Action Response Team (MPART) will be led by former Michigan deputy attorney general Carol Isaacs and Brown University School of Public Health epidemiology professor David Savitz, who will be the team's academic advisor.

The team was created by a Nov. 13 executive order that officials say establishes an administration-wide framework for the type of contamination response already underway in Kent County, where an expansive state pollution investigation is probing historical disposal of chemical-laden shoe manufacturing waste.

"To safeguard Michiganders from this emerging contaminant, it's critical that responding agencies at all levels are effectively communicating and coordinating efforts," Snyder said.

"This team will be instrumental in establishing protocols and best practices that will allow all partners to comprehensively address these contaminants across Michigan."

Isaacs and Savitz "have a wealth of experience that will serve them well in leading this team and ensuring a timely and effective response to this rapidly evolving public health issue," said Snyder in the announcement.

According to Snyder's office, the team is tasked with enhancing cooperation and coordination among local, state and federal agencies grappling with widespread ground and surface water contamination by per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances named PFAS, (also called perfluorinated chemicals, or PFCs).

PFAS has been studied in Michigan for nearly a decade, but the contaminant only began to generate serious attention last year after plumes were discovered in wells near the former Wurtsmith Air Force Base in Iosco County.

Low levels of PFAS chemicals have contaminated municipal drinking water supplies in Plainfield Township, Grayling and Ann Arbor, while extremely high levels have been found in private wells in Belmont and Oscoda Township.

Across Michigan, PFAS have been detected in water or fish in the Au Sable River, Flint River, Kalamazoo River, Muskegon River, Saginaw River, St. Joseph River, Tahquamenon River, Dead River, Thunder Bay River, Rogue River and St. Marys River.

The compounds were also found in parts of Lake Michigan, Lake Huron and Lake Erie; as well as inland water bodies like Van Etten Lake, Lake St. Helen and Otter Lake.

In state budget talks this summer, establishment of a workgroup to study the effects of PFAS exposure and establish cleanup criteria did not make it into the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality's fiscal 2018 budget during final negotiations.

Since then, a PFAS plume from an old Wolverine tannery landfill in Belmont has mushroomed into a widespread search for other dump sites.

Snyder's order directs MPART to identify PFAS sites and develop a plan for ensuring safe drinking water, initiate environmental cleanup and public health safety measures, perform outreach in affected communities, plan for long-term site cleanup, find money to cleanup contaminated sites, and standardize and enhance interagency and public communication.

Scientists who study PFAS consider the public health threat the compounds pose to be significant because they are toxic, water soluble, bio-accumulative and persist in the environment due to the strength of the fluorine-bonded, long-chain chemistry, which does not naturally degrade.

Although some production is banned or tightly regulated in the U.S., the chemistry is still produced overseas and enters the country via some imports.

Spokesperson Melanie Brown said DEQ and the Department of Health and Human Services are the two lead agencies, with support from the departments of Natural Resources, Agriculture and Rural Development and Military and Veterans Affairs.

Other departments involved are the State Police; Technology, Management and Budget; Treasury; Licensing and Regulatory Affairs; and Education.

The team coordinate with the National Guard Bureau, U.S. Department of Defense, local health departments and other government agencies.

"We're all kind of working in tandem," Brown said.

The new team means "folks in Rockford and other places will be able to have greater response efforts from the state level because we're set up operationally to address this more efficiently," Brown said.

Although funding is not addressed in the executive order, Brown said each state agency will likely be asking the legislature for additional funding for the PFAS team.

The DEQ is asking the legislature for money to retrofit the state laboratory to test water samples for PFAS.

Currently, all testing is done through private labs in other states and a backlog of samples from around the country has caused a four- to six-week turnaround time on well testing, which Brown said is frustrating for residents and the state.

A state lab could turn around test results much faster.

"We want to take action at the earliest point," she said. "If we could get that wait time down, that would be a tremendous advantage."